Marty Veale has resigned as Northland rugby head coach for family reasons after only months on the job. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Marty Veale has resigned as Northland rugby head coach for family reasons after only months on the job. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Marty Veale’s stint as Northland rugby head coach has arguably been the shortest.
The former Taniwha player and assistant coach resigned last week due to family reasons after only months in the top job and is heading back to New York where he coached prior to joining Northland.
His resignation comes just 90 days before the start of the National Provincial Championship (NPC) and Northland Rugby Union chief executive Cam Bell said the next head coach would likely be appointed from outside the region.
The union is racing against time but Bell said they were casting the net wide, as well as consulting New Zealand Rugby and the Blues, to get the best candidate.
For Veale, it was a tough decision to walk away from a job he was passionate about but said it was “just not the right time for my family and I”.
A father to two young girls, he said he had to stop being selfish by carrying on and thinking about what was best for them as well.
He won’t get back to coaching anytime soon once he finishes up with Northland in two weeks.
“I’ll get out of the game for a little bit and reflect and see where the game goes after the World Cup and if the desire to get back into it comes down the track, then I’ll visit it then.
“As a player and coach, it’s been 26 years, so I am looking forward to spending more time with family. It would be good to get some weekends back and do the normal things.”
Veale isn’t sure of the talent in the region for his role so understands why the union is casting the net wide in search of his replacement.
“It’s tough walking away because I genuinely believe that I can make Northland something really special, and a team the community can be really proud of, but also sustainable in its success and not be good one year, and not so next year.”
Northland Rugby Union chief executive Cameron Bell is urging fans to have trust in his administration as it looks to fill the role of head coach as soon as possible. Photo / Michael Cunningham
He reminisces about last year’s NPC campaign when the Taniwha took a few scalps, notably beating Auckland at home and taming the Wellington Lions in Porirua.
“We implemented a system that was pretty successful in the area I was looking after. In the head coach’s position, a lot of the work has been around the structure and organisation set-up and how we can best utilise our resources,” Veale said.
He replaced George Konia at the end of last year after the latter chose not to renew his contract after three years as the head coach and returned home to Hawke’s Bay.
Bell said Veale has made tremendous gains in a short time - improvements that would benefit the union going forward.
“It’s disappointing that he’s leaving because, in a short period of time, Marty has laid clear markers for the athletes’ development and a good thing is we can take that structure forward.
“We always put people before the organisation and we completely respect the situation he’s in. He’s really torn but family is a priority. There’s no animosity whatsoever as a result of his decision to leave,” Bell said.
He said the union has initiated discussions with the assistant coaches and there were exciting options to consider but they were not there yet.
“There are individuals coming back from major league in the United States, Japan, and Super Rugby is finishing up in the next few weeks so we are casting the net really wide and hope to have something definite as soon as possible.
“We’re being aggressive who we go after and we want to get the role filled before the NPC starts because the athletes and fans deserve continuity in that space.”
His message to the fans: “Trust in us. We’ve delivered improvements year after year. This is a hiccup but we’re doing our absolute best to get the best results as soon as possible.”
Eleven candidates, mostly from outside Northland, applied for the head coach’s role after Konia left and the union decided to go with the tried and tested as Veale was part of the Taniwha’s strong 2022 NPC campaign when the team bowed out in the quarterfinals.
